Saturday, November 1, 2008

A Twenty Year Dream Comes True...

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME - Portia Da Costa

Wahey, today sees the publication of my first Spice Briefs ebook CHANCE OF A LIFETIME, a contemporary BDSM erotic romance novella.

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME is the story of Rose, who's doing some temporary work in a dilapidated stately home whilst waiting to take up a dream job - a chance of a lifetime - in the Caribbean. But working at the Manor isn't quite as dull and routine as she expected, especially when she finds out about the wicked sexual preferences of her delicious boss, the tall dark and mysterious Marquis. Pretty soon she's wondering if the real chance of a lifetime is actually experiencing kinky delights at his skilled and aristocratic hand.

This publication day sees a long held dream of mine coming to fruition. When I first started writing, my dearest wish was to write romantic novels for Mills and Boon [the Brit division of Harlequin] and my first attempts at crafting fiction were aimed towards that goal. I sent several manuscripts to M&B and got some great feedback, but I never quite got it right. Writing short romance is an extremely tough discipline and takes enormous skill and writing talent. It's not easy getting a hero and heroine's complete love story, with all its ups and downs and conflicts, into such a short wordcount!

I kept on trying to write for M&B, until one day a writing advisor said that as I wrote good sex scenes, I should try writing erotica instead, as a different path towards publication... and the rest is history. But who knows what might have happened if she'd told me to stick with the category romance?

So, to finally fulfil my dream of writing for Harlequin means the world to me. I'm now published by the world's best known romance publisher, and at the same time, I've had the fun of writing the spicy erotic scenes too!

Chance of a Lifetime is available from eHarlequin, Books on Board, and Fictionwise, in a variety of formats, and here's a naughty taster of it if you'd like to see what I've been babbling on about it.

And if you choose to take the plunge and buy Chance of a Lifetime, why not pick up the other November Spice Brief too! It's a fabulous novella by Saskia Walker, called Hot on her Tail, which is part of her Loving on the Edge trilogy... all of which are fab!

Hot on Her Tail is also available from eHarlequin, Fictionwise and Books on Board.

To celebrate our Brit Brief Bonanza, Saskia and I running a TWICE AS SPICEY competition with a giveaway of print books from both of us as the prize for lucky winner!

Click here to zip over to Saskia's Blog for details!

STOP PRESS!

If you buy CHANCE OF A LIFETIME from the AFTERNOON DELIGHTS web page, between noon and 3pm EST on Monday 3rd November 08, you'll get it for the stunning bargain price of only 99 cents! It's a snip!

MANY AFTERNOON DELIGHTS HERE!

9 comments:

Erastes said...

Well done! What a great achievement!

Anonymous said...

fabulous! Spice Briefs is a great market. You should also give Ravenous Romance a try, as they do exclusively erotic romance. (www.ravenousromance.com).

Madeline Moore said...

Congratulations Portia!

Since Harlequin is based in Toronto, I've always wanted to publish with them too. Like you, no luck (so far.)
But now that they're spicing things up and BL is going in the 'romance' direction, perhaps I should give it another try?

Again, congrats!

Dayle A. Dermatis said...

Yay Portia! Another milestone reached! May you have many more!

Vincent Copsey said...

Congratulations on the release, Portia. You rock!

Unknown said...

I still can't get it right for HM&B so good for you!!!

dolly said...

Great to be able to access your work immediately via internet, Portia.
BTW, times certainly have changed. I am told Mills and Boon publish yaoi for the Japanese market nowadays - and this news is several years old.

Portia Da Costa said...

Thanks, you guys! Had a lazy day yesterday, enjoying my first day as a Harlequin author, but must get properly back on the writing horse today... because strangely, my current WIP is a complete MARE!!!

Louisa Harte said...

Congratulations Portia, that's awesome news!